Undergarment for ladies or children



Marc 9, 1948. DONALDSQN ETAL 2,437,511

UNDERGARMENT FOR LADIES 0R CHILDREN Filed Feb. 27, 1946 Inventors ELEANOR DONALDSON JANE Gu HEY Attokn.

Patented Mar. 9, 1948 UNDERGARMENT FOR LADIESOR. CHILDREN Eleanor Donaldson and Jana Gibney, Minneap.-

olis, Minn.

wear, 1110., Minneapolis, Minn.,,

of Delaware said Gibney assignonto MunSi a; corporation.

Application February 27, 1946, Serial No; 650,542

3 Claims.

This inventionrelates to an undergarment for women and girls and particularly to such a gar- 18 1.11 "commonly now known as panties. In such a garment itis desirable that the same be made of; goods which has considerable stretch or elasticityand it is highly important that the crotch piece be properly formed and properly disposed sothat the garment functions to the best advantage and gives the greatest comfort.

It is an object of this invention to provide a garment for women and girls, such as panties, the same having a body portion, leg portions and a crotch portion, together with a band at its top adaptedto extend around the waist of the wearer, whichbandmay be elastic, a rear piece extending downwardly from said band and from one side of said garment to the other said rear piece being made of material having the stretch thereof downwardly, leg portions to which said rear piece extends and to which it is secured, a front piece extending downwardly from said band and connected to said rear piece by seams extending vertically at the; sides of said garment, said front pieceextending to and secured to said leg portions, and a crotch piece extending between said frontand rear pieces and secured thereto and extending upwardly from said leg portions, said crotch-piece being disposed wholly between said legportions and preferably being made of matee rial having the stretch thereof laterally of said garment.

It isanother object of the invention to provide such. a garment as set forth in the preceding paragraph in which said crotch piece has its front side much closer to said band than its rear side.

It is a further object of the invention to provide a garment for women and girls, such as panties, the same having a band at its top adapt ed, to extend around the waist of the wearer, which band may be elastic, a rear piece extending downwardly from said band and from one side of said garment to the other, said rear piece beingmade of material having the stretch thereof downwardly, leg portions to which said rear piece extends and to which it is secured, a front piece extending downwardly from said band and connected to said rear piece by seams extending vertically atthe sides f said garment, said front piece extending to and secured to said leg portions, and a crotch piece extending between said front and rear pieces and between said leg portions, said crotch piece extending upwardly from said leg portions to thecrotch or center of the crotch piece, said crotch piece being of somewhat greater dimension between said leg portions than between said front and rear pieces and preferably having outer convexly curved edges, the front one of;.whi ch is much closer to said band than the rear one.

These and other objects and advantages of the inventiorrwill be fully-setforth 1-in; the-,foll owing description- ;made;in connectionwith the accompanying; drawingsinwhich like reference characters refer to; similar; parts throughout the-several views iandin which :1

Fig. l'isaiviewdn front elevation of the garment as it will appear uponthe wearer;

Fig.- 2is .a partial View in vertical section taken on1ine;-2 2 of Fig, 1, as indicated by the arrows;

Fig.3 is aview, infront elevation Of the garment laidout in somewhatfiat-position;

Fig. 4 is.;a;view'.similar to'Fi'g. 3,-but beingin rear elevation of said garment and:

Rig-digabottom plan yiewof saidgarment.

Referring to said drawings, a garment is shown comprising awaist band-llLadapted to encircle the waist of thewearer, and whilethis band could bevariously formed, in the embodiment of the invention illustrated it is, shown asofnarrow width and the same will preferably beformed of elastic material so that the band, can, be stretchedenddhegarment ,drawn. over the hips of the. wearer. A rear piece: ll extends downwardly from. hand I0 and from one side of the garment to the other; said; piece extending downwardly-to short leg portions, l 2. Leg portions l 2 could bevariedin length-and formbut in the embodiment of theinvention illustrated theyare shownas quite short and impractice these have been made of, material which is somewhatv elastic and circumferentially .expansible or stretchable. The rear piece II is preferablymade-ofmaterial whichhas the stretchthereof, vertically. Rear piece II will be secured to the upper edgesof leg portions, l2 by va suitable. stitching l3. A, front piece I4 is provided,extendingfrom band. it downwardly toleg portions; l2=to which: it is secured by suitable stitching, Hand-rear piece H and frontpiecei [4 are secured. along the sides of; the garment by suitablestitching or aseam- It. In order toprovide for the-stretching of band Hi, front and rear-pieces l4 and l l are gathered somewhat at theband ID, as indicatedat l laand l la. Front piece I4 ispreferably made of material having its stretch; horizontally. A crotch, piece I8 is provided; the sameihavingarear-edge cone vexlycurved at its outer side and: secured to rear piece II bysuitable stitching l9. Said crotch piece [8 has a frontedgewhichis alsoconvexly curved at its outer side and is'secured to front piece M by suitable stitching. 20. Crotch piece l8 extends between the leg, portions l2 and' is secured thereto by suitable stitching 2 i. Crotch piece l8 extendsv upwardly-from the leg portions I2 to the crotch'or the centerlineof the crotch piece and it will be noted' -that. said: crotch piece is disposed only between'the leg portions of the garment-and-ithus forms part of the innerside of the legs proper which-might be considered as extending from the center of the crotch down- 3 ward to the bottom of portions l2. The median line of the crotch piece in a direction laterally thereof or extending between the leg portions is disposed forwardly of the line extending through the centers of the leg portions I2, as shown in Fig. 5, and the front edge of the crotch piece is thus much closer to the band l0 than is the rear 1 edge of the crotch piece. Preferably the rotch piece [8 will be made of material having the stretch thereof laterally or toward and from the leg portions.

The above described structure forms a garment having desirable functions and one which is very comfortable. It will be noted that the crotch piece l8 forms very little of the rear of the garment. When the wearer sits therefore, the stretch of the garment can take place from the band In almost to the crotch. The wearer can thus really sit into the stretchable part of the garment and this results in great comfort and no binding. At the same time any stretch that must take place laterally.in the sitting position is accommodated by the lateral stretch of the front portion 14. The fact that the crotch piece is disposed forwardly also adds 'to the comfort of the garment as it tends to prevent the garment entering in or binding in the crease between the rear part of the legs. In a garment for women and girls it is not desirable to have a crotch piece which extends in a more horizontal position and further upwardly in the rear. By having the crotch piece I 8 extend upwardly from the leg portions to the crotch, as shown, a very smooth fitting and comfortable garment is provided for one of the feminine sex. The stretch of the crotch piece l8 provides ample freedom for any movement of the legs and the elasticity of the crotch piece insures that the same will have a smooth fit at all times. In a ladys garment the crotch piece can also be much smaller than in a garment for men. It has heretofore been proposed to have material that will stretch upwardly and downwardly in the rear of the garment and laterally in the front of the garment and crotch piece but this alone will not give the desired comfort and efiect without the crotch piece being properly formed and disposed.

It is pointed out that the garment of this invention has a body portion, leg portions and a crotch portion. These terms are used generally and the crotch portion denotes the portion of a garment that covers the crotch of the wearer or the part of the body between the legs. The term crotch portion as used in the specification and claims is not the same as the term crotch piece. The crotch piece refers to the piece designated !8 on the drawing and this includes not only the part covering the crotch of the wearer but also the parts at each side thereof which extend to the leg portions I 2 and are disposed along the inner sides of the legs of the wearer.

From the above description it will be seen that we have provided a garment for women and girls having many desirable functions and one which gives a very smooth fit and gives great comfort. It will be noted that front and rear portions M and II are continuous between the seams I5. The form, relative size and location of the crotch piece in combination with the direction of stretch of the portions result in a garment having a snug fit and the desired freedom of movement. The garment has been amply demonstrated in actual practice, found to be very successful and efiicient and the same is being commercially made.

4 It will of course be understood that various changes may be made in the form, details, ar-

rangement and proportions of the parts, without departing from the scope of applicants invention, which generally stated, consists in a garment capable of carrying out the objects above set forth, in the parts and combinations of parts disclosed and defined in the appended claims.

What is claimed is:

1. An underwear garment for women or girls and comprising body and. leg portions and also a crotch portion having in combination, a band at the top of said garment adapted to encircle the waist, a rear piece extending downwardly from said band to a short distance above said crotch portion of the garment, said rear piece being made of material stretchable vertically, a front piece extending downwardly from said band having its bottom edge spaced above said crotch portion a considerably greater distance than said distance, said front piece being made of material stretchable transversely and being secured at its sides to the sides of said rear piece and a crotch piece secured at its rear to the bottom of said rear piece and at its front to the bottom of said front piece, said crotch piece thus being disposed principally at the front of said garment.

2. The structure set forth in claim 1, said crotch piece being of comparatively narrow construction forwardly and rearwardly of said garment, the same extending to said leg portions and being disposed substantially altogether in the zone between the legs of the wearer.

3. An underwear garment for women or girls comprising body and leg portions and a crotch portion having in combination, a band at the top of said garment adapted to encircle the waist, a rear piece extending downwardly from said band to a short distance above said crotch portion, said rear piece comprising an unbroken piece of material stretchable vertically but having little stretch transversely, a front piece extending downwardly from said band having its bottom spaced a considerably greater distance than said distance above said crotch portion, said front piece being made of an unbroken piece of material which is stretchable transversely but has little stretch vertically and being secured at its sides to the sides of said rear piece, and a crotch piece secured at its rear to the bottom of said rear piece and at its front to the bottom of said front piece, said crotch piece being thus disposed principally at the front of the garment and being made of material which is stretchable transfile of this patent:

versely of the garment, said crotch piece extending to said leg portions.

ELEANOR DONALDSON. JANE GIBNEY.

REFERENCES CITED The following references are of record in the UNITED STATES PATENTS Number Name Date 1,643,980 Carlson Oct. 4, 1927 2,354,669 'Donaldson et al. Aug. 1, 1944 FOREIGN PATENTS Nurnoer Country Date 327,328 Great Britain Apr. 3, 1930 

